Maybe I just suck but I am having a really hard time....

I was cruising along in the game with my half-orc berserker with 19 strength and all of his points put into axes and two-weapon fighting...My half-orc would rush up and start hacking away piling up 20-30 point hits on the enemy while the rest of my party was turning the enemy into pin cushions with arrows and spells....

But this was way too easy, and really just not my style...I prefer to be a mage or a theif rather than a fighter....

So, I started over with a swashbuckler....And it seems that I can't get anywhere....I get hammered to dust at every major encounter...I didn't think that I was **that** bad at combat...I completed BGI with a theif character....

In my party I have Minsc, Jehiera, Yoshimo, Aerie, and Korgan....For some reason when I try to tank with Minsc or Korgan with the rest of hte party working as the casters and arrow shooters, I am getting killed!!!!

Any good general combat strategies for a swashbuckler character? Given my current party makeup, any one that you would suggest dumping? Who should I get?

Thanks!

Replace Yoshimo with someone else (can't say more as I don't want to spoil). Somehow I just don't have anything good to say about Korgan. In my game he seemed like a big baby. Even a flue could make him cry in pain. Minsc ok. His cool. Jehiera can become powerful and Aerie is the second best spellcaster.

Maybe you can get Keldorn instead of Yoshimo? I usually play a thief character, but I don't remember being too bothered, though occasionally I get stuck inbetween enemies, unable to escape, and get splattered. Oops. ;) Oh, BTW, I usually buy the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength for my thief (or main character). The Adventurer's Mart has it. (In Waukeen's Promenade)

Drop Yoshimo, get Jan. Best thief in the game, and a good second-string mage. Don't put yourself in the front melee line unless you have extremely low AC, whether that's achieved through armor add-ons or spells. Swashbucklers are a tough profession for the game: just not strong enough to tank it, and not possessing any obvious behind the scenes advantages during combat. Consider giving yourself plenty of skill points in archery, and supplementing the team in that fashion.

I agree put your points into archery then as son as you can kill the beast master to get his bow. Drop Yoshimo and pick up Valygar or Horgan till you can get Mazzy if you are good then just buy her that nice little belt at the adventures mart and you are all set.

you might be reluctant to do this as you already played as a fighter... but swashbucklers dual-classed to fighters are MEAN. better ac, better damage than regular ones, no poncy restrictions like kensais... and it´s not as if high levels did anything special to swashies anyway. (unless you have tob).

Swashbucklers should not be used as front-line fighters for the big baddies until they get relatively high level, (15+ or so) since their abilities don't really add up to much of anything until then. Use them as archers, secondhand fighters, etc. If you want to dump someone, i would dump either Aerie or Yoshimo. Yoshi just isn't very powerful for melee-aligned parties, but kicks butt if you like archery. you already have Jah for your clerical needs, (except Restoration) and Aerie's hit points are horrible, so you can dump Aerie for Nalia or somesuch if you're not romancing her. Yoshi should switch out for Jan. Jan or Nalia can later switch out for Imoen. For a big beefy, try Anomen, Keldorn, Valygar, Mazzy, or pretty much any fighter-type. It's very nice to have SOMEONE who can backstab, so you should probably have Jan or Valygar to take care of that. Essentially, you can swap out anybody for anybody, and it will work. Any party with two fighters, a cleric, and a mage can kill anything in the game. Your swashy is soon to be a top-notch fighter, and a thief to boot, so you should do fine.

I'd disagree about dropping Aerie. She does have her shortcomings, especially her low strength and constitution, but those can be fixed easily (girdle of fortitude from the Unseeing Eye quest for her Con and the maulers Arm mace, bought from the barkeeper in the Cooper Coronet for her strength). Give her one of the several decent sheilds you can pick up in various quests, and a decent set of bracers of protection and you can get her AC down to -5 or -6 without having to spend much money at all (there is no bonus for having lots of cash in your pockets, spend it on good equipment, and sell any equipment you can't find a good use for. A chest full of mega items you can't use is potential money to buy other mega items you can use). If you have the extra merchants installed, talk to Deidre in the back section of Adventurers Mart. When you can afford it, buy the Robe of Vecna from Deidre for Aerie (speeds up spellcasting and improves AC).

She'll never be able to tank, but the fact that she can have a full set of both mage and cleric spells is very useful. As a cleric she will have several good booster spells like Call Upon Holy Might, Holy Power, and Godly Might. As a mage she can have Improved Invis, Stoneskin, Improved Haste and Tensar's Transformation, as well as various spell deflection spells. You can also set up spell triggers and contingencies for ther that use a combination of both mage and cleric spells. If you're smart about how you use her, Aerie's spellcasting can lay some serious smackdown, and if she has to defend herself hand to hand, the right contingency combinations seriously transform her fighting ability.